Shin'en no Ano Youkai Kokoro
by Ophir
Summary: AU (sort of) Hiei's running a bookstore, Kurama's a billionaire, Yusuke's a psycho taxi driver and Kuwabara's a pizza delivery dude. They all live lives with anything they could ever possibly want! Except for Hiei and Kurama, who want wives of their own.
1. Youkai's Bookstore

Shin'en no Ano Youkai Kokoro  
  
by lieiavalon2044  
  
(Summary: Hiei's running a bookstore, Kurama's a billionaire, Yusuke's a psycho taxi driver and Kuwabara's a pizza delivery guy. They all live lives with anything they could ever possibly want! Except for Hiei and Kurama, who want wives of their own. Yusuke and Kuwabara have wives, so why can't they?! Then, one day, two girls show up, wanting jobs from Hiei and Kurama. The two youkai quickly become attached to their new employees, while the girls can't help but be attracted to the youkai. Both boys carefully hide their true identities, but when the girls discover who they really are, what will happen to their growing relationships?)  
  
The lake was silent, despite the four men sitting next to it, eating and talking, like they hadn't spoken in a very long time. Occasionally one would laugh, drawing the others into the laughter also. Laughing is sometimes very contagious, even to youkai, even if one is a dead serious kitsune while the other was once an assassin, both known widely through out the Makai. Not that the others weren't well known either, but the black haired one wearing a green outfit was definitely better known than the rest.  
  
Hiei gave one of his rare smiles, even in these days when youkai rarely invaded and he was given an immense amount of time to relax. Of course, that may have been the reason that he smiled so rarely, because he simply had nothing to do but manage his shop and write horror stories. He was very good at writing horror stories, and all he had to do was remember a traumatic five minute excerpt of his life, write it, lengthen it, edit it (which was done free of charge by a close red-haired friend) and publish it. Right now, Kuwabara was telling a story of a particularly rude customer that had called for pizza, made him take it back three times, and then only paid for half the price of one pizza, saying he needed to get change and never came back out of the house. He certainly couldn't put that in a horror story, except if he made it especially for pizza delivery guys, or girls, if there were any pizza delivery girls...  
  
Yusuke looked at Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara, his old friends and so called gang, but they weren't really old now, only about 21 or so... Except the true Kurama, the silver haired thief that killed for fun... He had to be over 1,200 years old... But he didn't look it... He still looked only in his early 30's or so... Damn kitsune ... Aging so well wasn't allowed... Yusuke gradually shifted his attention back to the others. They'd changed a lot, except for Kuwabara ... still the IQ of a cabbage there... Hiei's people skills had definitely improved, well... maybe not... And Youko still willed Kurama to steal the occasional object... Maybe none of them had changed at all.  
  
Kurama sat back, listening to Hiei talking. He was telling about his bookstore, which sounded rather, um, interesting if it could be called that. Apparently there was a book on the desk that if opened past page 8, it started to scream at you over and over until you closed it. Fortunately, before it got to that page, it had various warnings and instructions on 'How to Properly Close a Book'. He'd have to read it one day.  
  
"Hey, Kurama, you're married aren't you?" Yusuke asked, looking at the redhead. "Keiko and I got married 2 years ago and Kuwabara and Yukina got married about a month later." He added quickly, avoiding Hiei's gaze.  
  
"Well Yusuke, saying that every night I turn into Youko there's no way I could really have a wife, or a date of any kind unless they were a youkai kitsune themselves. But even then they'd have to be powerful because Youko doesn't really tolerate people... And they'd need to defend their self until he accepted them." Kurama replied, smiling in that really freaky sad way he usually does.  
  
"Well... Um... Hiei?" Yusuke asked, looking at the little koorime. Hiei glanced up from cleaning his glasses, which had finger prints and scratches all over them, to answer the question with a question.  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"I guess that's a no too..." Yusuke said, looking upwards.  
  
"Don't think we don't want wives Yusuke. It's just hard for youkai with reputations like us to find anyone suitable for ourselves. We'd love it if we could find someone, we just haven't been able to and even if we did there would be 'various complications'." Kurama said, voicing both his and Hiei's thoughts. Yusuke looked ever so slightly lost.  
  
"You lost me... And you still haven't answered my question as to if you have wives or not..." Yusuke said, making all the others either sweat drop or face fault, Kuwabara managing to do both at the same time.  
  
(The Next Morning!!! After the joyous drinking of coffee and brushing of hair and teeth!!! Oh goodie!!!)don't ask. Caffeine high.  
  
*JINGLE! JINGLE!* (this is like one of the bells at the top of a door and if you don't know what I'm talking about, next time you walk into a business or something, listen for a bell)  
  
Hiei looked up from his desk, his glasses slipping to the end of his nose. He didn't need to pull them up to see who had opened the ringing door, because the girl was walking over to his desk already. She had short brown hair, deep purple eyes, entirely black clothes and wore a backwards baseball cap on the top of her head. Hiei didn't question her clothes, in fact he didn't have the time to because she had arrived at his desk.  
  
"Hi, I saw that you wanted someone to help you with the store..."  
  
"You want to apply for a job?" Hiei questioned, looking over her tom boyish outfit. "At a bookstore?" He added, taking off his glasses and setting them next to the computer, which rarely saw use.  
  
"It's the only job I could find, and I heard that this was an entirely horror story bookstore, along with some mangas, so I decided to see if the job was taken or not." she said, placing the 'Help Wanted' sign on the counter.  
  
"Well, saying that the sign was still outside on the door and the fact that I just happen to be the only one here, do you think the job has been taken,--" Hiei broke off and looked at her, silently asking what her name was.  
  
"Rei. Well, my full name is Rei Yoruryu, if you're going to let me have the job. Oh, do any idiots come here?"  
  
Hiei smiled. He might just skip the interview and interrogation over any previous experience, age and all the other stuff required for a job and give it to her, and maybe get him self a date in the process.  
  
'BAD HIEI!' he inwardly yelled at himself. 'SHE'S JUST A HUMAN! YOU CAN'T GET INVOLVED WITH A RELATIONSHIP WITH A HUMAN! This relationship must be strictly professional...'  
  
"Only one idiot comes here... His name is Kuwabara, but he doesn't come here a lot. The usual customers are just a red head named Ku-, er, I mean, Shuuichi, a guy named Yusuke Urameshii and the strange customers you'll just have to meet for yourself." Hiei was of course referring to the many youkai that came to the store in search of information, which was on the Makai only, except for that one that wanted to learn about blowing up toilets...  
  
Rei nodded. She looked around the bookstore which was dimly lit and rather eerie, saying that one couldn't see more than a few feet into the rows of bookshelves. But there was one thing that stood out. A book on a podium with a sign above it that said in large, bold, red letters;  
  
**~DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK UPON ANY CIRCUMSTANCES UNLESS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR AMUSEMENT BY SCARING THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR PREVIOUS BEST FRIEND. IF YOU WISH TO DO SO, PLEASE OPEN TO PAGE ONE AND LET THEM TURN TO PAGE EIGHT. THANK YOU.~** The Manager.  
  
Hiei watched as Rei walked over to the podium and opened the book to page one. He sighed and opened a drawer, where much to his dismay, only one pair of earmuffs remained and they were pink and fuzzy. He groaned again and heard a small gasp come from across the room, which made him rethink the humiliation of wearing the earmuffs and actually put them on. He knew what the book would say when she turned to page five... It would start to yell about then.  
  
"Hmm ..." Rei sighed, winding her fingertips over the edge of the book cover, Maybe she shouldn't... Wait for a customer to open it... Then your employer can't laugh his guts out over your idiocy.  
  
Hiei let out a sigh of relief as Rei's fingers slid off the book and she turned back to him, her baseball cap now crooked, though Hiei had no clue why. He removed the earmuffs and stuffed them unceremoniously into the drawer they'd come from.  
  
"Well? Do I get the job?" she asked, leaning against his desk. Hiei smiled, careful not to let his fangs to show too much.  
  
"Would you mind working part time night shift?" he asked cockily, then mentally punched himself.  
  
'HIEI! YOU'RE BEING A NAUGHTY YOUKAI!!! AS I SAID EARLIER, THIS RELATIONSHIP MUST BE STRICTLY PROFESSIONAL! With a couple bonuses...'  
  
Yet another mental punch followed his previous mental punch.  
  
"Ah, sorry... I think you can work anytime you want to... Whatever hours... As long as you work at least three... So as soon as you choose your hours you get the job." Hiei quickly said, trying to keep all sickening thoughts from his head. He didn't even have an idea why they were there, they just... Poofed there. And it scared him more than... Well, the idea of Yukina getting married to Kuwabara.  
  
Rei looked up, thinking about free time she had that didn't interfere with 'snack time'. Lots of free time but noon was snack time. She wasn't a morning person, her afternoon somehow always ended up totally full. However... Night time... Empty.  
  
"I only have night time as my free time. I guess I have to work night shift. Oh, by the way, will there be other employees here?"  
  
" I'm the only person that works here. No one else has wanted to ever since some of my friends came here and scared them away. And besides that, the previous employees said they saw demons here."  
  
"Really?! SWEET DUDE!" Rei yelled happily, jumping up and down, making her hat come off.  
  
Hiei smiled. He HAD to hire her. It'd certainly improve his mood.  
  
"You can work here. You don't even have to sign any papers. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot to ask you how long you wanted to work. The night shift starts at 7:30 pm and ends at seven in the morning.  
  
"This... This is a twenty four hour bookstore?!"  
  
"Well, not really. It closes from ten to twelve for my lunch break."  
  
"A two hour break!?" (SWEET! Do I get one too!?)  
  
"I take a nap, eat lunch, check for e-mail, and greet the customers that can't seem to read the 'Closed' sign."  
  
"Oh, well... I suppose around seven thirty to twelve thirty or more. I'm a night owl Not a morning person, so I'll have to leave at least thirty minutes before the sun rises so I can take a nap before school."  
  
"You go to school? How old are you?"  
  
"I'm about 19... I'm going to be 20 soon though! So what am I going to need to do here?"  
  
" First you need to sign a paper and learn how to use the register."  
  
"I thought you said I didn't have to sign papers!"  
  
"This is one paper. It doesn't count as 'papers'. And you are to NEVER open the book!"  
  
"Sure. What does that book do anyway?"  
  
"Wait until Kuwabara comes in. You'll learn as soon as he opens it."  
  
"Who's Kuwabara?"  
  
"I'll tell you. Don't worry at all." Hiei said, stepping out from behind his desk.  
  
"But I don't know anything about the store."  
  
"Hn." (Hiei)  
  
"Hn." (Rei)  
  
"Hn." (Hiei)  
  
"Hn." (Rei)  
  
"Hn." (Hiei)  
  
"Is that your favorite word?"  
  
"Yes. Well, I think I'll show you around. Come on." he said, walking back between the bookshelves.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"So you can know more about my store so you can run it and I'm not poor."  
  
Rei looked at him as they walked between the bookshelves.  
  
"Do you always mean to rhyme Mr. Employer Dude?" she asked curiously.  
  
to be continued  
  
This one is going to be continued whether nobody reviews it or not! ^^ I like this storyline! Ok, I've only gotten through to the introduction of Rei, who is actually in another one of my stories. The story is 'Youkai Jaganshi', which is actually the best story I've written. And since nobody has reviewed my Yu-Gi-Oh! Fic... I guess I won't have to worry about updating it for a while... Well, um yes, if you read this lemme know in a REVIEW! That's the worst thing for people to do! Read something and not review it! I accept anonymous reviews so at least do that! Well, um, yes, check out my other stories which are further along with this one if you liked this! ^^ Thank you! 


	2. Kitsunechan

Shin'en no Ano Youkai Kokoro  
  
Chapter Two  
  
by lieiavalon2044  
  
Sorry that this took a long time to post. I didn't have much free computer time and I had to write the rough draft first... Well, I hope this chapter is as good as the last! Oh, yes, thank you to Grand Admiral Gin, Asian princess 61 and kitsune16 for reviewing the first chapter. ^^  
  
Kurama sat back at the table, comfortable in his cushy chair as he sipped wonderful champagne. He observed the other high class people silently. The only reason he came to high class restaurants like this was to see how strange some people's 'out' outfits were. but mostly he noticed that he had to be the youngest person in here. Most of the women that had asked how old he was had admitted to thinking he was 16, instead of 21.  
  
He sighed his boredom and loneliness and sat up, brushing a stray crimson hair out of his face, He drained the final drops of champagne from his glass then moved his empty plate and utensils away from the edge of the table to the center and took the well hidden napkin off his lap. He wiped a tiny crumb from the corner of his mouth and placed the napkin next to the plate, tucking a few dollar bills under it.  
  
"Excuse me waitress," he said, lightly tapping the shoulder of a passing waitress. She turned quickly and Kurama blinked in surprise. She was really pretty.  
  
"Yes Mr. Shuuichi sir?" she chirped cheerfully, holding a little black clipboard to her chest bearing an engraved family crest.  
  
"Ah, yes, could you get me another glass of champagne? And would you care to join me?" he asked politely, giving her his most attractive smile. The waitress blushed and smiled back before she turned away.  
  
"I'll go get your champagne Shuuichi-sama! I'll be right back!" she said happily before vanishing back into the 'bar'.  
  
Kurama inwardly smiled, ignoring Youko's questions and comments.  
  
"I suppose I could try dating again... Date her, plan around Youko and it couldn't possibly cause any harm to come to her..." he mused, almost forgetting he was in a high class restaurant when he felt a sudden longing to jump up and down in joy. But thankfully, the waitress returned with the bottle of champagne and nervously took the seat across from him.  
  
"Perdon (Oh my god! I wrote in SPANISH!!! but no accent mark... Can't do that on this awful computer...) my asking miss, but what is your name? I wish to address you properly if you are to share my champagne," Kurama asked politely, pouring a glass of champagne for the waitress and then his self. He handed her glass to her and she took it, setting down the cork she had been nervously fiddling with. She glanced toward him as she took the glass and Kurama noticed her eyes were bright, the colors shifting and playing in the crystal chandelier light, casting the illusion of twin fires.  
  
"My name sir? It's... Liei ... Liei Akiryu ..." she murmured softly. Kurama then glanced around, noticing stares and whispers from the occupants of the other tables. These rich people were so horrible at minding their own business. And weren't very subtle at hiding the fact that they were being nosey...  
  
"Well, Liei ... Why don't we go else where? Some where quieter where we can talk privately? Like my office, perhaps?" he asked, talking in a whisper.  
  
Liei paused momentarily. She didn't like being asked off to places by men she'd barely known for five minutes. She didn't trust people at all now, even if nothing had ever happened to her. But Mr. Shuuichi was so nice... and rich too. But so far he seemed nicer than he was rich, and that was something the young waitress found hard to believe.  
  
"Um... Ok Mr. Shuuichi!" she said cheerfully, smiling at him. Kurama nodded and stood, drinking the splash of champagne left in his glass. Liei stood up with him, setting down her barely touched glass to re cork the bottle of champagne. Kurama watched as she turned to leave and get what ever things she may have kept there.  
  
"Don't I need to pay?" he asked, pulling a small compact wallet out of his pocket. Liei turned suddenly, her thoughts interrupted, blushing madly, (though he didn't know why) and nodded quickly.  
  
"Yes, yes of course! My, my, it must have slipped my mind... Silly me, forgetting to make a customer pay..." she said hurriedly. "I'll be back with the bill in a second Shuuichi-sa-"  
  
"I insist upon your calling me Shuuichi. No 'mr' or 'sama' or anything of that sort added on to it Liei," Kurama said walking around the table to her, still ignoring the stares and whispers. "But because I'm on a very tight schedule and I'm sure you must have things you need to do, why not ask your boss if I could send him a check later? We should go before you have to wait through my meeting, which could very well last over two hours, and I swear that I'll pay."  
  
Liei nodded, which he interpreted as meaning 'I'll go ask him', and then walked into a back room, closing the door behind her. He heard a brief exchange of words, a closing of a door and she came out again about three minutes later wearing black jeans, a purple sleeveless shirt and she also had a small light blue bag draped over her shoulder.  
  
"I'm off work now. My boss just told me that my shift ended over 45 minutes ago. Oh, and he said sure you can send a check to pay for it later. Here's your bill, " she whispered, handing the folded piece of paper to him. He stuffed it into his pocket, smiling slightly the entire time, nodded to her and then they walked out the golden-trimmed glass doors together.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Yusuke yawned and looked outside. He'd been waiting an entire 8 minutes in his taxi and not a single customer had wanted a ride. He looked around more closely, then he heard the back door open. He turned around and saw Liei and Kurama getting into the taxi. Kurama was talking to her, she'd giggle a little sometimes then answer, and Kurama proceeded to take off the black jacket and un-tuck his white shirt as he rid himself of his tie. Yusuke was still gawking at this as Kurama asked if he could put his stuff in her bag. The rest Yusuke managed to hear over the din of passing traffic.  
  
"Liei, would you mind if I put my jacket and tie in your bag?"  
  
"No, of course not Shuuichi-sa, I mean Shuuichi! But, won't it get wrinkled?"  
  
"I honestly don't know. I'll have to see later. Hm? Oh, hello Yusuke! I see you still haven't developed any manners what-so-ever. Would you mind driving Liei-chan (who blushed lightly at this) and I around for awhile?"  
  
Yusuke nodded dumbly, actually watched for traffic before pulling out of his parking space and began to drive. He missed several stop signs, had people slam on their brakes in order to prevent from crashing into him, and nearly hit a couple of pets wandering across the street. He was too busy watching Kurama and Liei in the rear-view mirror, waiting to see if they'd do anything but talk. What would have helped would have been if Kurama stopped whispering to her, making her blush and rarely even let out a giggle. Another thing that would have helped would have been if Kurama scooted away from her. Yusuke decided to involve him self in the conversation.  
  
"So..." he began, stopping Kurama in mid sentence, which was good saying that Youko had thought it up, and stopping Liei in mid mad blushing and giggle.  
  
"Yes Yusuke?" Kurama asked, leaning away from Liei to give her some space to breathe. Youko muttered something angrily to Kurama in his head, but Kurama ignored him as usual.  
  
"How long have you two known each other? And why didn't you tell us about her the other day?" Yusuke asked, now paying attention to the road, taking the route away from the city and toward a park. Kurama smiled slightly.  
  
"Well, because we dropped into a store or two for about 10 minutes each, we've known each other for about 45 minutes now."  
  
"And Shuuichi's really nice! He even said that if I wanted to I could come and work for him at his office!" Liei said cheerfully hugging Kurama, who was trying not to laugh at the stunned look on Yusuke's face.  
  
"Only... Only 45 minutes?! Not even an hour?! Not even a SINGLE DATE YET?! AND YOU TWO ARE ALREADY THIS CLOSE?! That's... That's IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Yusuke yelled, pulling into the deserted parking lot of the park.  
  
Liei smiled as did Kurama and they stepped out of the car. Kurama came around to the driver's side of the car and handed a twenty dollars to Yusuke.  
  
"Nice driving Yusuke. You didn't hit anything." he said before he and Liei walked off along the sidewalk.  
  
"Shuuichi? Why is there a fox following us?" Liei asked, tugging on his sleeve. He stopped and looked over his shoulder and saw Youko, in his fox form, his nine tails fanned out behind him. He almost felt relieved to know that she couldn't see Youko's tails, otherwise she might freak out.  
  
"It must think we have something it wants. It's a rather unusually colored fox though, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah. Hey, can I see if it'll let me pet it?"  
  
"Uh. that may not be such a good idea... It may decide to bite you or scratch you and you might get really sick..." he said. He turned to look at her and then heard a giggle.  
  
"Shuuichi! Come on! He's really friendly! " she called out, smiling as she scratched behind the fox's ears and it purred (how?) and licked her cheeks and arms affectionately whenever it could. Kurama sighed and walked back to stand next to her until she finally stood again. The fox let out a chirping sound (^^) and walked beside them all the way into town, where it paused for awhile before following.  
  
Kurama smiled, thankful at least that Youko hadn't tried anything. He was confused as to how the kitsune had separated his self from him, but he found it didn't really concern him anyway. Liei was now calling Youko 'Kitsune-chan' and waved goodbye to him when the fox nudged her hand then turned and dashed off. Kurama now glanced up the sidewalk, Liei's arm interlocked with his, and felt cold surge through him. There was Yusuke, energetically talking to Kuwabara, Keiko and Botan. Then he pointed, they all looked and stared in astonishment. He looked at Liei to say something, but she interrupted.  
  
"You need to go?" she asked.  
  
"No, I remembered that that meeting wasn't even until tomorrow." he said, casting his gaze around to find a safe haven that would shelter him from the questions and matchmaking of Botan, Keiko, Yusuke and Kuwabara. Then he spotted Hiei's book store. He gave Liei a quick signal, she acknowledged it and the two walked into the dimly lit store.  
  
to be continued... (Sorry!!!!)  
  
I know this chappie was wimpy. I know absolutely nothing seemed to happen. I know three hundred billion of my fans (actually three, or maybe less) will probably cuss me out and curse me to all high hell. Oh well. Like I care. My friend cusses me out all the time. Oh, if you have a line challenge for this story, PLEASE submit it in a review!!! I really need help because of my awful writer's block!!! Oh, and don't REALLY cuss me out... ^^ 


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